Stories of your Model 3 phone-as-a-key FAILURES, give us a FOB, Tesla!!!

[timk225]

I've had my 3 since May 8, and it's a great car. but the phone-as-a-key gimmick SUCKS. We need a forum topic where everyone can tell their stories of its failure, and see that Tesla engineers read it.

I have a Galaxy S5 phone, and my phone-as-a-key works intermittently at best. Now and then it'll work flawlessly for a day or even 2, then it goes back to random failures, or complete fail for a day or so.

This morning, I was heading out to work, and it was raining. I was carrying my phone, a screwdriver set, and a bottle of water, The phone-as-a-key failed to unlock the door in the rain, so I had to switch the phone to my other hand and dig in my pocket for the key card. This caused me to tilt the screwdriver set, and the handle slid out of its holder, and when it hit the ground, its tip popped out and went under the car a bit. So I had to kneel down on the wet ground, while getting rained on, and reach under the car for the screwdriver tip and handle, then stand back up, swipe the key card, open the door, and get in, all because phone-as-a-key SUCKS!!!!

And this happened 3 times today -- having the phone in my hand will unlock the car so I can get in, but it won't turn the car on, so while in the seat I have to lean back and dig the key card out of my pocket and swipe it, because phone-as-a-key SUCKS!!!

Add your stories. Give us a simple and reliable fob, Tesla!

 

[MarkBrokeIt]

All of the other threads/polls on this topic not enough for you? Maybe if they see ONE thread blow up in a big way, that'll be a signal to them. You're not helping your own cause here.

 

[North75]

Made it the first week with no failures yet. IPhone X.
I was thinking that I also use an Apple Watch which connects to the phone via Bluetooth.
Perhaps having this connection live all the time make sure that the Bluetooth never shuts down.

I’m big fan of not having to carry keys around any more.

 

[a.void]

This one time in band camp...

 

[timk225]

I forgot to mention the "waking up" of the phone app. Once in a while it'll wake right up, but usually it takes a minute or two, or an airplane mode on-off to kick it into waking up.

I'll keep beating this dead horse until we get a key fob!

 

[nvx1977]

stop griping on a forum hoping tesla will see it (they won't). send them feedback directly:

[email protected]

 

[eprosenx]

I am really looking forward to my M3 (any day now?) and I think one of the most awesome features will be the ability to unlock using my phone.

Now with that being said, for it to be effective it has to actually work.

So yeah, the *option* of a fob sounds like it would be a great feature to have, but I still want the phone unlock feature! It will make a lot of things simpler when traveling / hiking / etc... with friends.

I wonder if he car has onboard hardware that would make a fob possible (with some technology less lame than Bluetooth for connectivity)

 

[SageBrush]

My PIxel phone works quite well for me.
The few times I have had a problem I use the card

<<shrug>>

 

[Falkirk]

I just sent [email protected] some of what I go through because honestly, I'd say my phone works as a key maybe at most 10% of the time so I don't count on it at all anymore. I usually turn off Bluetooth now and just turn it on when walking to the car and that works better. Let's see if they come back with anything useful other than but a new phone ha.

Does anyone have a Oneplus 6 and can say how it works for them?

Thanks

 

[Twiglett]

Not had a single failure to unlock with my phone. Now on 2018.21.9 still no phone key issues.
So far only used the keycard to demo for a valet.
Hate to clutter up a complaint thread with news of it working without issues.

 

[N5329K]

stop griping on a forum hoping tesla will see it (they won't). send them feedback directly:

[email protected]

EM said a fix was on the way in a phone call to Consumer Reports (it didn't work well for them, either) and the implication was that the fix would be a conventional, reliable fob. It would't hurt to send Tesla a reminder of this every time the phone-as-key fails. Daily. But don't expect much until they hit and sustain 5k cars per week.
Robin

 

[Big Dog]

This morning, I was heading out to work, and it was raining. I was carrying my phone, a screwdriver set, and a bottle of water, The phone-as-a-key failed to unlock the door in the rain, so I had to switch the phone to my other hand and dig in my pocket for the key card.

Yeah, it sucks. I've started waking up and unlocking the car (with my phone), before I go out the door.

 

[jsmay311]

EM said a fix was on the way in a phone call to Consumer Reports (it didn't work well for them, either) and the implication was that the fix would be a conventional, reliable fob. It would't hurt to send Tesla a reminder of this every time the phone-as-key fails. Daily. But don't expect much until they hit and sustain 5k cars per week.
Robin

Unless you saw something more than I did, the CR complaints we're about the card and difficulty using it when valeting, not about phone key (un)reliability.

And their reporting on Musk's phone call comments about a solution didn't explicitly say anything about a fob. That prob the logical assumption tho.

 

[bhzmark]

mine works fine. It even inspired me to put bluetooth locks on my house and now with key card access at work I carry no keys. It's great. Glad to be done with keys and fobs forever.

 

[PoitNarf]

If only there was already another 47 page thread about this issue... oh wait, there is: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/phone-as-key-issues/

 

[dethman]

stop griping on a forum hoping tesla will see it (they won't). send them feedback directly:

[email protected]

Tesla does monitor this forum FYI.

 

[TT97]

I forgot to mention the "waking up" of the phone app. Once in a while it'll wake right up, but usually it takes a minute or two, or an airplane mode on-off to kick it into waking up.

I'll keep beating this dead horse until we get a key fob!

Do you think it is your app or the car that is "waking up"? The car will still need to wake up if you use the fob but you will not know it as the is no screen on the fob to let you know. You will just keep pressing the buttons expecting something to happen which it will not until the car is awake.

 

[gtmotor]

Not had a single failure to unlock with my phone. Now on 2018.21.9 still no phone key issues.
So far only used the keycard to demo for a valet.
Hate to clutter up a complaint thread with news of it working without issues.

I haven't had a single failure to unlock on 21.9 also (I have a Google Pixel 2). They definitely keep making it better. When I was on 14.xx (forget the exact build) I had tons of issues. Now it appears to be rock solid.

 

[TT97]

If only there was already another 47 page thread about this issue... oh wait, there is: https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/phone-as-key-issues/

Maybe OP didn't see that one. Maybe this one instead?

Using phone as a key. Not a good idea.

OP should be able to find the latter one since he created that thread as well.

 

[SageBrush]

There was a good week that OP was not complaining about something.
Now we are back to normal